Monster Hunter series
The Monster Hunter series puts the player in the unlikely role of a scavenger looking for monster corpse parts in order to upgrade weapons, armor, etc. In the hunting quests, as the hunter progresses through the game, the monsters will become more difficult to defeat, but will consequently provide better items for the hunter to use. This is the most important section of the entire series of games, as killing a monster is the only way, in most circumstances, to carve a monster for its various body parts. Hunting quests can not only increase in difficulty through bigger and stronger creatures, but also through the online only addition of "plus level" monsters. These beings are exactly alike in appearance to their normal counterparts, but have a great increase in damaging ability and health reserves. In the gathering quests, the hunter must "gather" items. These items may be simple to gather, like herbs, or require tools to gather them, like ore and fish. Other quests may require the player to kill monsters and hack off correct parts of meat or bone. These quests generally give out the least amount of rewards, but in some cases give valuable items. Although these are more than occasionally challenging, all gathering quests are required to be completed in order to reach the highest hunter rank in online play, as well as a way to earn items that can be used for rare novelty weapons such as the "Teddy Bear" hammer weapon. Games in the Series * Monster Hunter - (2004) * Monster Hunter Freedom - (2005) * Monster Hunter 2/Dos - (2006) * Monster Hunter Freedom 2 - (2007) * Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - (2008) * Monster Hunter Frontier - is an online MMORPG currently available only in Japan. * Monster Hunter 3/Tri - (2009) * Monster Hunter Portable 3rd - (TBA) * Monster Hunter Diaries - (2010 - Japan only) History The Monster Hunter series seems poised to have as confusing a history as Street Fighter what with its many sequels, expansions and updates. The original Monster Hunter was released in North America on September 21, 2004. It was later updated/expanded with Monster Hunter G, which was released in Japan for the PlayStation 2. Monster Hunter G itself was altered slightly upon its release for the PlayStation Portable in Japan (known there as Monster Hunter Portable) and was brought to North America and Europe as Monster Hunter Freedom for the PSP. The sequel, Monster Hunter 2/Dos, was also released only in Japan on February 16 in 2006, and then Monster Hunter Portable 2nd was a Japan-only PSP expansion to it. This version was brought to North America under the title Monster Hunter Freedom 2 on August 28, 2007. Again, this "portable upgrade" brought some new things with it that the original game did not have. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite was the Western release of yet another updated PSP version of MH2, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. Currently, Monster Hunter 3/Tri is available exclusively for the Nintendo Wii. Box Art Image:MH3Japan.png|Tri Japan Image:MH3BoxArt.png|Tri U.S. Image:MH3Europe.png|Tri Europe Merchandise Image:MHArtbook.png|''Artbook'' External Link * Paperninja.net's Fan Site * Official Encyclopedia Gigantica Site * Monster Hunter Wiki Category:Series